Comparative study of different configurations of a long haul optical fiber link

Abstract

Nowadays, with all the advanced technologies that we use, we need a secure, high-data transmission system to safely transfer data. The optical communication system serves this purpose. However, it has dispersion that leads to a loss of data. One way to eliminate this loss is to add optical amplifiers to the optical communication circuit, which are essential for boosting signal strength. However, we can’t add too many amplifiers due to their high cost. In this project, my goal was to explore the possibility of reducing the number of optical amplifiers in the circuit and how this would affect the overall performance of the optical fiber communication system. To do so, I focused on reducing chromatic dispersion using Dispersion Compensating Fibers (DCF). I tested a 120 km link-to-link circuit by dividing it by four, three, and two optical amplifiers at six transmission bit rates (5Gbps, 10Gbps, 15Gbps, 20Gbps, 30Gbps and 40Gbps) using three configurations (Pre-compensation, Post-compensation, and Symmetric-compensation). The results are presented in terms of Q-factor, Bit Error Rate tables, and eye diagrams. MATLAB and OptiSystem version 7.0 were used as the software tools for validating the proposed approach. After analyzing the simulations, results suggests that there is potential to reduce the number of amplifiers in the system and the optimal solution for a 120 km long-haul optical fiber link is to divide it into three evenly spaced amplifier segments. Utilizing the post-compensation technique in t